That may have been the definition, but in practice the referee only stopped the clock when he/she deemed it necessary, like in a case of an injury, or for severe time-wasting near the end of the game.

As of about about two weeks ago or so, however, MLS has adopted the way games around the world hold time: the clock ticking from 0:00 to 45:00 plus injury time (for the first half), and then continuing to 90:00 plus injury time for the second half... and the referee will be keeping the official time down on the field.

That system of time-keeping was used in the MLS Cup '99 final, and will begin in earnest for the entire league when the season begins in March (and very likely in preseason shortly before that)! http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif


-G

Let's also not forget that some aspects of MLS like the clock didn't just happen to appease American tastes, but also as an experiment by FIFA.

The world wide clock situation is certainly not fault free. Every week, somewhere in the world, there is a team and it's fans complaining about an official that added too much or too little injury time. A goal in the 6th minute of injury time to win... etc.
Someone is always up in arms.

Frankly, in my own opinion, I think the clock should be universal throughout FIFA, so I'm glad for the change in MLS, though you have to admit, there are problems with putting that much extra power in the official's hands.

For everyone's information, the MLS Clock is not when the Clock ticks downward, it is the clock stopping when the ball is out of play. A lot of people here think it is going from 45:00 to 00:00 and saying they have a Clock like that at Highbury which is correct, but I remember a few years back, 442 magazine had something about the MLS when it was starting and it's definition of the MLS Clock was that it is allowed to stop during the game.